My daughter and I went on a school trip to Washington D.C. It wasn’t quite a vacation, but it felt like one because my daughter missed four days of school. The two schools (Community School #53 and Performing Arts) joined together to reward their Honor Roll students, and with the cooperation of many parent chaperones and a wonderful bus driver took forth 6th graders on a bus ride through Pennsylvania to D.C. I was the parent chaperone for 4 girls from School #53 and this was the first time they were going on this trip to DC; the other school had been on the trip a few times with other classes. The bus’s air conditioning didn’t work on the ride down and we were caught in 3 different traffic jams, so needless to say the children were a little annoyed and the parents did their best to keep them together. We stopped at an Amish Bakery where we picked up some very tasty goods, and made other stops to break up the long hot ride. The next day we started early and stopped off at the Lincoln Memorial, WWII, Vietnam Memorial, Korean Memorial, the White House and the Capitol where our very knowledgeable tour guide Mr. Russ provided us with loads of information. The following day we toured the Arlington National Cemetery, Ford Theater, Washington Monument, the Printing and Engraving Building (where they make the money), and the rest of the day at the various Smithsonian museums. If the kids weren’t excited about any of the places that we went to, I certainly was excited about this... this is an adventure that we will definitely go to again! - Erikka Hill
Birthdays Cheryl Brunetti - July 26 James Hill - July 31 Andrew Mattle - July 24 Gary Williams - July 15 John Carocci - July 21 Raymond Ganoe - July 14 Keisha Leavy - July 19 Cecil Sutton - July 29 Olga Montes - July 2 Gloria Kornowski - July 19 Charell Elliot - July 12
Anniversaries Norma Bocanegra - 6 years Ileana Hanesworth - 5 years Dale Kingston - 5 years Marcus May - 4 years Liya Moolchan - 3 years Mindi Mietlicki - 3 years Lucy Brown - 1 year Thomas Place Jr. - 1 year Jane Safford-Cameron - 1 year Pratheep Sakas - 1 year Jasmine Thorington - 1 year Crystalann Wallace - 1 year Jamila Banks - 1 year Tara Grier - 1 year
Your Continued Dedication and Hard Work Are Noticed and Appreciated! – The Management Team
Blurry Lines My guess is that there are very few people who enter 206 South Elmwood for only one reason. Or perhaps, I would guess that although a person may enter the building for a specific reason (i.e. to get tested), they exit the building with a food pantry, an appointment at Evergreen Health Services, or a full belly from lunch at the Wellness Center. So the question is: whose client is this person? The answer is: ours. At risk, IVDU, HIV positive, gay, poor, homeless, and hungry males are not the only demographic we target and serve. Our abilities and our community have grown past this. Our community is composed of everyone outside of the walls of our building. And, if the Wellness Center’s success is an example of anything, it is that only we see the lines between your client and mine. To those accessing our services, we are a team of people creating a safe space where help is ready and available. If you sink into that mindset, the lines between divisions and departments become blurred. Seamless service delivery is the first step in living up to our mission statement. In order for us to meet the needs of our community, we must stretch ourselves and actively work to diminish the lines between the services, divisions and programs. So I challenge us as an agency to walk through other parts of the agency, to sit with ‘strangers’ at lunch, to join Book Club, to visit other departments’ meetings and lunch rooms. Eliminate the lines that divide us. If we begin to see ourselves as one team, we will be that much closer to meeting the needs of our clients. — Brian Planty
More like what didn’t happen in June, am I right? ACS made a big splash at Pride with our Superhero campaign, we helped our Wellness Center clients plant and maintain a vegetable/herb garden, we did outreach at the Battle@Bualo, and put up 30 billboards all over the city. See video footage on the f:// drive in the HPS Shared / Videos folder.
EAGLES, WHALES & STINGRAYS, OH MY! by Shari DeMarco
I love to travel and I love Disney so what better way to see parts of the nation I have not yet seen than by going on a Disney Cruise – first to Alaska and then to the Bahamas. I was fortunate to be able to travel on the Inaugural Disney Cruise to Alaska from May 3-10th with both of my parents. We spent two days in Vancouver before the cruise. What a beautiful city. The sea planes taking off and landing, the eagles flying around and the beautiful snow-capped mountains all make Vancouver a city to visit. After Vancouver we left on the Disney Wonder for seven days of sailing. The first “port” was the Tracy Arm where I saw the most beautiful glacier. The picture does not do it justice. The blue was a color blue unlike anything I have ever seen and the icebergs were huge. As the ship went over some of the smaller ones we could feel the ship shake. I wonder what it felt like on the Titanic. I saw mountain goats, whales and even a mini-landslide. In true Disney style, the characters were out in all their winter gear and though it was cold (35 degrees or so) everyone just bundled up and watched the beauty unfolding around us. Off we went to Skagway, Juneau and Ketchikan, Alaska where I was able to ride a dog sled on wheels (they train on wheels in the summer) and do a zip line course through the rain forest and walk around the capital city of Alaska. What an amazing experience it was. I am going to preface the next part by saying I travel at least once a year with my mom alone who is semi-retired. Disney has a new ship, the Disney Dream, and about one and a half years ago I asked her to book us a cruise on the new ship. She called to say
she had booked it and when she gave me the dates, June 7-12, 2011, I asked her, “Will we be back from Alaska yet?” Time means nothing to a retiree. So off we went, Mom and I to Disney World to have a little fun and visit my niece who works for Disney, and to see the Harry Potter area at Universal Studios. We then left for a five-day cruise on the Disney Dream. I had another fantastic time. The Dream has the Aquaduck—a clear water slide that goes over the side of the deck of the ship. What a feeling to look down and just see ocean while moving through a water slide. The beautiful paintings on the ship were interactive in true Disney-style—moving and chang-
ing as we walked by. Our ports of call were Nassau in the Bahamas and Disney’s private Island, Castaway Cay. Castaway Cay is probably my favorite place on earth. I was very fortunate to have traveled a lot when in competitive Synchronized Swimming, so I have seen many beautiful places from Hawaii to Colorado to Denmark and Sweden, but Castaway Cay is by far my favorite. The beautiful clean beaches, lounge chairs and, of course, a massive barbecue all done in Disney-style. You can parasail, snorkel, scuba dive, jet ski, water ski and even swim with stingrays or just lay on the beach or in the water and do nothing. What a great time I had in both Alaska and the Bahamas!
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ALL AROUND THE WORLD WITH SHARI!
Andy Kiener Do
oes a Paint by Numbers Portrait of the Evergreen Association in May, 2011 Alianza Latina Encounters with enrolled clients ................................................................. 26 Contacts with non-enrolled contacts .......................................................... 80 Pregnancy tests given ................................................................................. 10 Positive pregnancy tests ............................................................................... 1 Case Management (April) COBRA clients ........................................................................................... 433 Ryan White clients ...................................................................................... 69 New intakes (4 newly diagnosed) ............................................................. 433 Evergreen Health Services Visits ........................................................................................................ 342 New patients (10 positive, 6 negative) ........................................................ 16 Housing Subsidies .................................................................................................... 65 Total dollar value ................................................................................$22,220 First/last/security assistance ........................................................................ 3 Total dollar value ................................................................................. $1,925 Human Resources Employees ................................................................................................ 127 New employees hired ................................................................................... 1 Wellness Center Meals served ............................................................................................ 764 New intakes ............................................................................................... 17
Nutrition Food pantries distributed ........................................................................... 93 Meals provided through vouchers ............................................................ 440 Home delivered meals .............................................................................. 142 People accessing the Food Express Truck .................................................. 100 Nutritional service interactions................................................................... 58 Pride Center Group participants.................................................................................... 111 Website hits ........................................................................................ 43,581 Facebook friends/likes........................................................................... 2,398 Transportation Bus passes distributed ................................................................................ 51 Gas cards distributed .................................................................................. 24 Tokens distributed .................................................................................... 429 One way trips provided ......................................................................... 1,506 Syringe Exchange Exchanges conducted ............................................................................... 624 Syringes collected ................................................................................ 27,698 Syringes distributed ............................................................................. 29,719 New clients................................................................................................. 54 Clients referred to drug treatment ................................................................ 9 Testing HIV Tests .................................................................................................. 176 New positive ................................................................................................ 1 STD Screenings ........................................................................................... 45
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ladies tea Do you have a positive female client who could use the added pampering of a special social group just for them?
Ask them if they’d like to join our new Ladies’ Tea Group. Our first meeting will occur on August 2, 2011 from 5:30 - 7:00 p.m. For more information contact Cathy (431), Jane (455) or Jenn (405).
The AIDS Walk Lawn Sign and Car Magnet Raffle Winner
Richard Baer! Richard won a very lovely rolling speaker cooler to take on fantastic adventures!
CONNECTIONS CONTRIBUTORS PUBLISHER/LAYOUT JOHN CAROCCI EDITOR KIMBERLY HARDING CONTRIBUTORS SHARI DEMARCO KIMBERLY HARDING, ERIKKA HILL ANDY KIENER, BRIAN PLANTY